Eyes Wide Shut is a 1999 erotic mystery psychological drama film directed, produced, and co-written by Stanley Kubrick. It is based on the 1926 novella Traumnovelle (Dream Story) by Arthur Schnitzler, transferring the story’s setting from early twentieth-century Vienna to 1990s New York City. The plot centers on a doctor (Tom Cruise) who is shocked when his wife (Nicole Kidman) reveals that she had contemplated having an affair a year earlier. He then embarks on a night-long adventure, during which he infiltrates a masked orgy of an unnamed secret society.
Jocelyn Pook wrote the original music for Eyes Wide Shut but, like other Kubrick movies, the film was noted for its use of classical music. The opening title music is Shostakovich’s Waltz No. 2 from “Suite for Variety Stage Orchestra”, misidentified as “Waltz 2 from Jazz Suite”. One recurring piece is the second movement of György Ligeti’s piano cycle “Musica ricercata”. Kubrick originally intended to feature “Im Treibhaus” from Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder, but the director eventually replaced it with Ligeti’s tune feeling Wagner’s song was “too beautiful”. In the morgue scene, Franz Liszt’s late solo piano piece, “Nuages Gris” (“Grey Clouds”) (1881), is heard. “Rex tremendae” from Mozart’s Requiem plays as Bill walks into the café and reads of Mandy’s death.
Pook was hired after choreographer Yolande Snaith rehearsed the masked ball orgy scene using Pook’s composition “Backwards Priests” – which features a Romanian Orthodox Divine Liturgy recorded in a church in Baia Mare, played backwards – as a reference track. Kubrick then called the composer and asked if she had anything else “weird” like that song, which was reworked for the final cut of the scene, with the title “Masked Ball”. Pook ended up composing and recording four pieces of music, many times based on her previous work, totaling 24 minutes. The composer’s work ended up having mostly string instruments – including a viola played by Pook herself – with no brass or woodwinds as Pook “just couldn’t justify these other textures”, particularly as she wanted the tracks played on dialogue-heavy scenes to be “subliminal” and felt such instruments would be intrusive.
Another track in the orgy, “Migrations”, features a Tamil song sung by Manickam Yogeswaran, a Carnatic singer. The original cut featured a scriptural recitation from the Bhagavad Gita, which Pook took from a previous Yogeswaran recording. South African Hindu Mahasabha, a Hindu group, protested against the scripture being used, Warner Bros. issued a public apology, and hired the singer to record a similar track to replace the chant.
The party at Ziegler’s house features rearrangements of love songs such as “When I Fall in Love” and “It Had to Be You”, used in increasingly ironic ways considering how Alice and Bill flirt with other people in the scene. As Kidman was nervous about doing nude scenes, Kubrick stated she could bring music to liven up. When Kidman brought a Chris Isaak CD, Kubrick approved it, and incorporated Isaak’s song “Baby Did a Bad, Bad Thing” to both an early romantic embrace of Bill and Alice and the film’s trailer. (wikipedia)
As is typical of a Kubrick score, it features previously existing tracks and classical pieces, but also contains four original pieces recorded especially for the film by composer Jocelyn Pook. These pieces are the centerpiece of the film and are incredibly unsettling and experimental, perfectly complementing the disturbing and ominous visuals. Another track in the film, “Migrations”, features a Tamil song sung by Manickam Yogeswaran, a Carnatic singer. The original cut featured a scriptural recitation from the Bhagavad Gita, which Pook took from a previous Yogeswaran recording.
As a result of various fringe Hindu groups protesting against the scripture being used, Warner issued a public apology, and hired the singer to record a similar track to replace the chant. The party at Ziegler’s house features rearrangements of love songs such as “When I Fall In Love” and “It Had To Be You”, used in increasingly ironic ways considering how Alice and Bill flirt with other people in the scene. As Kidman was nervous about doing nude scenes, Kubrick stated she could bring music to liven up. When Kidman brought a Chris Isaak CD, Kubrick approved it, and incorporated Isaak’s song “Baby Did A Bad Bad Thing” to both an early romantic embrace of Bill and Alice and the film’s trailer.
The music is as dark and mysterious as the film itself, sometimes very tender, sometimes a little disturbing and confusing
A classic and wonderful soundtrack ! (gramvinyl.nl)
Tracklist:
01. Dominic Harlan: Musica Ricercata II (Mesto, Rigido E Cerimoniale) (György-Ligeti) 4.17
02. Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra: Walz 2 (from Jazz Suite) (Shostakovich) 3.41
03. Chris Isaak: Baby Did A Bad Bad Thing (Isaak) 2.55
04. The Victor Silvester Orchestra: When I Fall In Love (Young/Heyman) 3.00
05. The Oscar Peterson Trio: I Got It Bad (And That Ain’t Good) (Ellington/Webster) 3.11
06. Jocelyn Pook: Naval Officer (Pook) 4.52
07. Jocelyn Pook: The Dream (Pook) 4.57
08. Jocelyn Pook: Masked Ball (Pook) 3.42
09 Jocelyn Pook & The Jocelyn Pool Ensemble with Manickam Yogeswaran: Migrations (Pook/Brough) 3.44
10. Roy Gerson: If I Had You (Shapiro/Campbell/Connelly) 7.01
11. Peter Hughes Orchestra: Strangers In The Night (Snyder/Singleton/Kaempfert) 2.31
12. Brad Mehldau: Blame It On My Youth (Levant/Heyman) 6.17
13. Dominic Harlan: Grey Clouds (Liszt) 3.19
14. Dominic Harlan: Musica Ricercata II (Mesto, Rigido E Cerimoniale) (Reprise) György-Ligeti) 4.17
ManyFantasticColors 